A 57-YEARD-OLD man caused a major drama in a council housing scheme after threatening to jump from a seventh floor window.

Tonight (Thur) at around 6pm, hundreds of onlookers gathered to watch the man, who was dressed in what appeared to be a white tracksuit, as he balanced himself on the ledge of a balcony while three police officers tried to coax him back from the balcony below.

The huge crowd was moved back by a police cordon and an entire road was closed off.

Ambulance crews and fire engines were also present at the scene.

The man could be seen gesturing to the police officers below by waving his arms at them.

After a tense hour of negotiations the man pulled himself back over the balcony and went back inside the flat, which is part of a 14-storey block in the Muirhouse area of Edinburgh.

Almost immediately, police officers who had been waiting anxiously on the other side darted in to grab hold of him.

One onlooker said: “The place was an absolute circus – people were waiting around for nearly an hour to see what had happened.”

The man was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh suffering from hypothermia.

A police spokesman said: “Following an incident at Birnies Court, Edinburgh this evening, a 57-year-old man was safely removed from the balcony of the seventh floor.

“He was taken by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh suffering from hypothermia.”